Noted feminist economist Devaki Jain talks about writing her memoir, The Brass Notebook (2020), with her long-term friend, Gloria Steinem. They are hosted by Katherine Collins and Elleke Boehmer. Together, they discuss Jain and Steinem’s friendship (which spans many years as fellow activists), telling their mothers’ stories, and women becoming more radical as they get older. Content warning: brief discussion of sexual assault. Keywords: feminism, economics, India, motherhood, family history, activism, feminist economics. Find out more about: Devaki Jain: Book: The Brass Notebook: A Memoir (20 ..read more

John Schad’s experimental biography, Paris Bride: A Modernist Life, mixes fact and fiction as it speculates on the life of one of his ancestors, Marie Schad. Confronted with scant archival fact, John turns to literary pastiche and quotation to imagine her early-twentieth-century life by thinking alongside modernist writers. Long-time friend of the podcast, Alexandra Harris, a writer and literary critic who specialises in literary modernism, joins this discussion to give her insights on the literary context. Keywords: twentieth-century, modernism, experimental biography, post-criticism, family ..read more

Tamarin Norwood discusses her current project: writing the brief life of her son, Gabriel, who died shortly after his birth. Reflecting on her background as an artist and researcher, she talks about the deep coincidences between her doctoral research and her experiences of pregnancy, as well as how pervasive metaphors (to do with sleeping, being underwater, or in the dark) structure our cultural narratives around birth, death, and bereavement. Content warning: this episode discusses neonatal loss, grief, motherhood, and pregnancy. Find out more about: The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: https ..read more

Heather Clark discusses her new and highly praised biography of Sylvia Plath with celebrated biographer Hermione Lee, as well as Oxford University student, Lucy Cobold. They talk about the challenges of writing “big” biography (Clark’s biography of Plath is over 900 pages); the importance of treating women like Plath and Virginia Woolf first and foremost as professional writers rather than patients; and the conscious decision to avoid certain loaded words (like ‘doomed’ or ‘neurotic’) when approaching a writer like Plath. Find out more about The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: www.oclw.ox.ac ..read more

In this follow up discussion to Episode 1, Richard Mabey, Alexandra Harris, and Katherine Collins discuss the connections between life-writing and place. They talk about the overlap between science and poetry as ways of exploring the world around us, how our senses shape our writing, Gilbert White's attempt to communicate with his pet tortoise, and Richard's ideas about the future of nature writing. Find out more about: The Oxford Centre for Life-Writing: www.oclw.ox.ac.uk @OxLifeWriting. Richard Mabey: https://richardmabey.co.uk/ Alexandra Harris: https://www.alexandraharris.co.uk/ Works ment ..read more

Celebrated nature writer Richard Mabey discusses the relationship between biography, nature, and place with literary critic Alexandra Harris. They delve into a life-writing classic, Richard's biography of the eighteenth-century naturalist Gilbert White, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize in 1986, and discuss what drew him to write about 'this quiet curate of Selbourne' and the ways in which a writer's sense of place may shape their writing. This episode is part of our flagship series of Weinrebe Lectures. It is the first instalment of an annual collaboration with the Arts of Place N ..read more

A first look at the new podcast series by the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing. Co-hosts Kate Kennedy and Katherine Collins introduce themselves and the podcast, indicating what listeners can expect to hear: interesting discussions with noted writers, biographers, and academics. Hermione Lee and Elleke Boehmer describe what we mean by life-writing as well as its importance as a vital cultural practice. Find out more about OCLW: www.oclw.ox.ac.uk @OxLifeWriting ..read more

Noted feminist economist Devaki Jain talks about writing her memoir, The Brass Notebook (2020), with her long-term friend, Gloria Steinem. They are hosted by Katherine Collins and Elleke Boehmer. Together, they discuss Jain and Steinem’s friendship (which spans many years as fellow activists), telling their mothers’ stories, and women becoming more radical as they get older. Content warning: brief discussion of sexual assault. Keywords: feminism, economics, India, motherhood, family history, activism, feminist economics. Find out more about: Devaki Jain: Book: The Brass Notebook: A Memoir (20 ..read more

John Schad’s experimental biography, Paris Bride: A Modernist Life, mixes fact and fiction as it speculates on the life of one of his ancestors, Marie Schad. Confronted with scant archival fact, John turns to literary pastiche and quotation to imagine her early-twentieth-century life by thinking alongside modernist writers. Long-time friend of the podcast, Alexandra Harris, a writer and literary critic who specialises in literary modernism, joins this discussion to give her insights on the literary context. Keywords: twentieth-century, modernism, experimental biography, post-criticism, family ..read more

Helena Attlee and Sophy Roberts have both written "biographies" of musical instruments. Sophy Roberts’s book, The Lost Pianos of Siberia, sees her track down these instruments in remote landscapes all across Russia, tracing the unique importance of pianos to Tsarist and USSR history, and the poignant stories of the individuals who used them. Helena Attlee’s book, Lev’s Violin, follows the story of one particular violin across Italy and beyond, describing the wider history of European luthiers, and exploring how we ascribe monetary value to these emotionally charged objects. They talk to Kate K ..read more